Themes: Single Life, Twentysomething Life, Sibling Relationships
Main Cast: Derick Martini, Christa Miller, Steven Martini, Bill Henderson, Amy Hathaway
Release Year: 1999
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Two brothers look for love under unusual circumstances in this independent comedy. Chris Remi (Derek Martini) and his brother Tony (Steven Martini) have an unusual family background: their parents, an Italian-American man and a Native-American woman, met on a tour of a Hollywood studio, and their Grandmother bestowed on them semi-traditional American Indian names, "Goat on Fire" and "Smiling Fish." These days, high-strung Chris and good-natured Tony share the house they grew up in following their parents' death in a traffic accident. Chris is having problems with his girlfriend Alison (Amy Hathaway), who bursts into tears whenever they have sex; meanwhile, Tony's girlfriend Nicole (Heather Jae Marie) is ready to give Tony his walking papers if he can't straighten himself out, though he's already got his eye on Kathy (Christa Miller), who delivers the mail in his neighborhood. Chris, who works for an accounting firm, is asked one day by his boss to pick up his Uncle Clive (Bill Henderson) from the airport. Clive used to work as a soundman for a independent African-American film company in the 1940s; he loves to reminisce about the old days and compares love to capturing "the perfect magnetic wave." Clive proves to be a romantic catalyst when Chris meets Anna (Rosemarie Addeo), an Italian immigrant who trains animals, and a fast friendship looks like it could grow into something more. The feature-film debut for Martin Scorsese protege Kevin Jordan, {#Smiling Fish and Goat on Fire) won the Film Discovery at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
This charming, low-budget romantic comedy is a festival award winner and marks the feature film debut of co-writer and director Kevin Jordan as well as the film's real-life brothers/stars. As (respectively) Chris "Goat on Fire" and Tony "Smiling Fish" Remi, Derick Martini and Steven Martini provide their characters with the warmth and charm of young men whose development has been long-arrested. Criticized by some for its affability, Smiling Fish and Goat on Fire is indeed a slight film, but the tone matches the subject matter well. Really about that moment in the lives of young men that so many Generation X "slacker"-type projects address, when childhood slips away and the mantle of adult responsibility is assumed, Jordan's film doesn't lose sight of the fact that these moves are often small ones -- universal in nature but usually insignificant to others. Jordan suggests that this emotional growth spurt doesn't have to be a big deal and can have its own loopy sense of fun; while not a grand statement in the tradition of telegraphed big-budget message pictures, it is just right in a small, well-scripted independent film produced on a budget under 50 grand. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Rosemarie Addeo - Anna; Heather Jae Marie - Nicole; Nicole Rae - Natalie; Wesley Thompson - Burt
Credit
Mark Poggi - Associate Producer, Ryan Rothmaier - Co-producer, Phillip Pennestri - Co-producer, Kristen Dolan - First Assistant Director, Kevin Jordan - Director, Ryan Rothmaier - Editor, Tommy Lynch - Executive Producer, Sheilah Graham - Executive Producer, Chris Horvath - Composer (Music Score), Fred Iannone - Cinematographer, Kevin Jordan - Producer, Steven Martini - Producer, Derick Martini - Producer, Brittany Taylor - Producer, Karyn Burgner - Set Designer, Deanna Aho - Set Designer, Erik Magnus - Sound/Sound Designer, Matt Rheinbeck - Sound/Sound Designer, Kevin Jordan - Screenwriter, Steven Martini - Screenwriter, Derick Martini - Screenwriter
